The Easiest Way to Carve a Turkey for Thanksgiving
Turkey is the staple of a Thanksgiving dinner, and carving your masterpiece is almost as important as knowing how to cook it. To avoid damaging the star of the show, keep the wings on the bird for added stability.
We have discussed this topic before , but the video is gone, so we are posting a new method for you. The video above (and the link below) can walk you through the entire cutting process, but you don’t need to be intimidated. There are actually only four basic steps to carving a turkey.
- Give her a rest : Before even touching the knife, make sure you let the bird rest for 45 minutes so that all of that delicious juices can be redistributed. (It also prevents your hands from burning.)
- Do the leg work: leave the wings on to keep the bird from wobbling, and cut the skin between the chest and leg to expose the thighbone. Pull your leg away from the rest of the body and cut through the joint. Cut the joint between the drumstick and thigh, and slice the thigh meat if desired.
- Now remove the wings: get them out of the way by cutting the joint between the breast and wing. You can even cut them in half if you have a lot of wing fans at your table.
- The rest is the breast: following the curvature of the breastbone, trim the meat from the carcass, carefully separating it while cutting. Cut the meat into thin slices for serving.
Now that all the meat removed, you can turn its attention to the rest of the carcass, which should not be thrown away under any circumstances, be used as a broth for soups, stews, gravies, and (my personal favorite) gumbo. …
How to split a turkey. Illustrated chef